A harmonic signal may have a fundamental frequency and one or more overtones. Harmonic signals include, for example, speech and music. A harmonic signal may have a fundamental frequency, which may be referred to as the first harmonic. A harmonic signal may include other harmonics that may occur at multiples of the first harmonic. For example, if the fundamental frequency is fat a certain time, then the other harmonics may have frequencies of 2 f, 3 f, and so forth.
The fundamental frequency of a harmonic signal may change over time. For example, when a person is speaking, the fundamental frequency of the speech may increase at the end of a question. A change in the frequency of a signal may be referred to as a chirp rate. The chirp rate of a harmonic signal may be different for different harmonics. For example, if the first harmonic has a chirp rate of c, then other the harmonics may have chirp rates of 2 c, 3 c, and so forth.
In applications, such as speech recognition, signal reconstruction, and speaker recognition, it may be desirable to determine properties of a harmonic signal over time. For example, it may be desirable to determine a pitch of the signal, a rate of change of the pitch over time, or the frequency, chirp rate, or amplitude of different harmonics.